Basejumper.com - archive

hey guys, i joined this forum because i'm interested in wingsuit base jumping, and have even chosen to write an informative speech on it!

i plan on covering the following topics:
1. how to start
2. recommended gear/material
3. the basics of wingsuit base jumping
4. top speeds reached
5. famous places to try base jumping
6. interesting twists to wingsuit basejumping people have created (example: snowboard with wingsuit basejumping)
7. estimated price on gear and equipment


that's all i can really think of for now, and i'd appreciate all kinds of help! preferably, information from experienced jumpers would be awesome.

if there is any other important information i may be missing, feel free to inform me some more

Personally, not knowing you from Adam, I think you would be better fit to talk about the new found interest the public has with wingsuit BASE and notorious jumpers that have helped bring it to the rockstar status it has become. Otherwise, you might as well splice Tom's beginner page found under the articles tab, and Joakim's intro to proximity flying found on his webpage.
But honestly, in an attempt not to plagiarize the works of these men, you would probably just be getting it wrong and passing on bad information since you might not develop much of an understanding before your speech is due.
Just a thought.

Oh, and if you wanted to write on something really RAD you would do it on tracking instead of wingsuiting.

Feel free to disregard my $0.02 but be prepared to do your own research.

WELL HOLY FUCKING SHIT! THAT'S AMAZING!

you do realize you are asking for enough information to get yourself (or someone else) killed?

death can be held at bay by building skills and learning in stages.

if you are not going to put in the necessary time to develop skills, why would anyone be motivated to share information that could lead to tragedy?

Lets just say this, your speech must be ethical, and as the speaker you must ensure that what you are talking about is based on good ethics. i am in a speech class as well, and i know far more on this topic than you do. I still wont do a speech on how to start knowing that people will die and that they shouldnt be doing this.

dont forget the ethics portion.

In what setting you will be giving your informative speech? We team of experts here are ready to help you out, but we need to know whether to write the speech for nun convention...



...or gay parade

Start skydiving. In the 1990s the typical student program was an optional tandem jump followed by seven freefall levels - 3 jumps with two instructors leaving the plane hanging on to you with a release on the third level, 4 with one instructor working with you. After that you could jump by yourself. They've since added a proficiency card including canopy maneuvers that you can finish in the 25 jumps it takes to get the basic skydiving license.

Become proficient at skydiving and comfortable enough just jumping out of planes that you're not going to be overwhelmed jumping in a restrictive suit with extra handles to pull when things go wrong. With that under your belt and the 200 jumps required by the US Parachute Association Basic Safety Requirements you can try a wingsuit. Become proficient at flying that, doing all the housekeeping after opening (getting your arms out so you can reach the parachute controls, dealing with your leg wing so you can walk on landing), and dealing with issues (line twists) because you'll have a lot less time opening at 1000 feet in a BASE environment not a skydiving environment. Hundreds of wingsuit jumps before then are a fine idea.

Become proficient at low altitude maneuvers under canopy and classic accuracy landings so you don't run into trees/walls/boulders that surround and litter BASE jumping landing areas. Although BASE jumping courses generally only require 200 jumps, you'll do better to limit yourself to the less unsafe skydiving environment until you've learned how fast things go wrong, what you don't know, and picked up some judgement which I'd guess to take around 1000 jumps (it did for me) and five years for the sorts of people likely to try BASE jumping (generally guys under 30 who are still suffering at least a mild case of testosterone poisoning).

Learn to BASE jump. We used to find some one with a few hundred jumps to show us the ropes but these days there are courses taught by people who both have a lot of experience and know how to teach. Take one. It'll include your first jumps off an object that you're less likely to hurt yourself on, preferably a bridge (you can't open flying into a cliff) over a wide open landing area with enough altitude that it doesn't take much finesse to turn back into the wind for a soft landing.

Get proficient at BASE jumping (exits, landing) and comfortable enough that you'll be relaxed enough to deal with any issues. Get plenty of big-wall experience (lots of jumpers in the US just hop off low objects where you don't have enough time to use aerodynamics to fly away from the object). A hundred jumps is a start.

With that sort of experience your chances of death and injury doing wingsuit BASE are about as good as they'll get.


$30,000 on skydiving lift tickets, travel to BASE sites, and training is a reasonable start not including equipment. A little arithmetic suggests I've spent over $15,000 on the gear in my equipment closet although things were a lot less expensive when I started buying stuff in the 1990s and I got some good deals on used gear.